Tree Planting Data Validator 🌳

A robust Python script to validate Excel-based tree planting records.

This tool ensures that tree planting data submissions meet quality standards before being imported into databases or mapping systems. It performs comprehensive checks on participant types, planting dates, geographic coordinates, and tree sources.

✨ Features

Flexible column matching: Automatically detects common column name variations
Data cleaning: Removes blank rows and normalizes input
Comprehensive validation:
- Required fields check
- Participant type validation
- Date range and format validation (no future dates, no pre-2024 planting)
- Geographic boundary validation (Northeast US focus)
- Tree source categorization
Clear, human-readable error reports grouped by Excel row
Command-line interface with optional CSV error export
Debug mode for troubleshooting

📋 Validation Rules

Field	Requirements
Participant Type	Must be one of: `landowner`, `community`, `professional`, `municipality`, `agency`
Plant Start	Required, valid date, on or after Jan 1, 2024, not in the future
Plant End	Required, valid date, not in the future
Latitude	Required, numeric, between 40.4774 and 45.01585
Longitude	Required, numeric, between -79.5 and -71.1
Tree Source	Required, one of: `local`, `regional`, `national`, `plant_sale`, `self`, `other`

🚀 Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd tree-planting-validator

(Optional but recommended) Create a virtual environment:

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate    # Linux/Mac
# venv\Scripts\activate    # Windows

Install dependencies:
```
pip install pandas openpyxl
```

📖 Usage

Basic usage

python validate_tree_planting_data.py "path/to/your/data.xlsx"

With options

python validate_tree_planting_data.py "data.xlsx" \
  --header-row 2 \
  --debug \
  --output errors_report.csv

Command Line Arguments

Argument	Description	Default
`excel_file_path`	Path to the Excel file (required)	-
`--header-row`	Row number containing column headers	`1`
`--debug`	Enable debug output	`False`
`--output`	Save validation errors to a CSV file	None

Example Output

Success:

==========================================================================================
✅ VALIDATION SUCCESSFUL
Processed 245 records
==========================================================================================

With Errors:

❌ VALIDATION REPORT
Total records processed : 245
Total errors found      : 12

📍 Excel Row 47
-----------------------------------------------------------------
   • Plant Start..................... Future date
   • Longitude....................... Out of range

File Requirements

Excel file (.xlsx or .xls)
Header row with recognizable column names (case-insensitive)
At minimum: Participant Type, Plant Start, Plant End, Latitude, Longitude, Tree Source

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to submit issues or pull requests for:

Additional validation rules
Support for more file formats
Enhanced reporting features

License

This project is open source. Feel free to use and modify as needed.

Made for tree planting initiatives 🌱

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